The energy transition can only truly succeed if it reduces risk on impacted species, provides opportunities for biodiversity to thrive, and involves local stakeholders. The Renewables Grid Initiative (RGI) facilitates collaboration and exchange, disseminates best practices, and builds capacity to implement nature-inclusive approaches among a network of European electricity grid operators, NGOs & policymakers.

Two of our main focus topics are: Integrated Vegetation Management (IVM) & bird mortality around power lines (collisions, electrocution & disturbance). Here, Liam will present RGI’s work on these topics, and opportunities to enable an electricity grid which benefits nature and people.

IVM: Grid operators must clear vegetation around power lines to prevent a tree touching the line and causing a fire or a black out. While conventional management involves clear-cutting and gyro-grinding, an ecological approach can create huge benefits for local biodiversity, ecosystem interconnectivity, socio-economic opportunities for local stakeholders, public acceptance of infrastructure, and financial benefits for grid operators. The potential for a coordinated European approach is extremely promising.

Bird protection: Avian species face a range of threats along energy infrastructure –collision with power lines perhaps the most widespread and poorly understood. Mitigation methods exist, but lacking consensus in practice & knowledge on factors influencing effectiveness prevent a strategic approach. Monitoring, data, research, collaboration, and transparency are key.

Liam’s talk will include the presentation of collaborative LIFE projects, such as the 6-year LIFE-SafeLines4Birds between 15 partners from France, Belgium, Portugal, Germany and the United States; recent publications and advocacy initiatives; and Working Groups.

In the Czech Republic, there are c. 75,300 km medium-voltage (22 and 35 kV) and 18,700 km high-voltage (110, 220 and 400 kV) power lines. Bird mortality caused by collisions or electrocution was known for many years, but precise data missed until 2015, when a project focused on this topic was carried out. About 6,500 km medium-voltage power lines with 76,500 pylons were checked. According to obtained results, the annual total bird mortality on medium-voltage power lines in the Czech Republic was calculated to 114,000 – 330,000 individuals. Steel pylons bearing more cross-arm types including upper and crosswise jumpers were identified as the most dangerous from an electrocution point of view. On the other hand, pylons in straight lines with Pařát cross-arms (triangular arrangement of conductors without any horizontal bar) belonged to the least dangerous, when a simple perch below the cross-arm was installed, none mortality was recorded.
Results of this project were widely used in searching for safe solutions and a general way how to reduce bird mortality. In cooperation with Ministry of Industry and Trade, all four energy companies and organizations of nature and bird protection, two methodological guidelines were issued by Ministry of the Environment. According to their requirements, the safety of medium voltage constructions and the suitability of bird diverters are assessed by the Nature Conservation Agency of the CR and only those with a positive evaluation can be used. Thanks to this cooperation, power lines in the Czech Republic gradually become less dangerous for birds.

This presentation explores effective strategies for mitigating avian mortality on power lines while enhancing grid reliability, with a focus on electrocution prevention. Beginning with identifying the risk areas and danger posed by power lines and substations to wildlife, we dive into the impact caused by electrocution, emphasizing the need for proactive measures.
In this talk we highlight the importance of interactions and cooperation between utilities, wildlife organizations, legislative bodies/actors, and equipment manufacturers to achieve better results in electrocution risk mitigation. Through case studies from the Mediterranean region and data analysis, we underscore the scale of the issue and demonstrate how effective solutions contribute to minimizing bird mortality while reducing power outages. Additionally, we discuss various avian electrocution mitigation options, encompassing product design, material specifications, and installation techniques.

Lastly, we showcase solutions offered by TE Connectivity, a company with over 60 years of manufacturing and design experience, to reduce power outages and fire risk in power lines while safeguarding endangered wildlife.

For more than 40 years close cooperation with energy companies in Slovakia has been taking place in solving the problem of mortality of birds on power lines. Raptor Protection of Slovakia conducted research (12/2014-02/2016) focused on mortality of birds caused by 6,235 km of 22 kV and 110 kV power lines under LIFE Energy project. It was the most comprehensive and systematic study of its kind ever carried out in Slovakia. As a result, 4,353 bird carcasses representing 84 bird species and 14 bird orders were identified. The project brought several new findings in the field of birds protection, which are replicated and adopted in LIFE Danube Free Sky project, representing a cooperation of 7 countries along the Danube River. In the period 01/2021-10/2022, almost 1,580 km and 12,535 poles of power lines were inspected. During the monitoring, 2,098 dead birds belonging to 103 species were identified under power lines. Alltogether 270 km of power lines were identified as the highest priority for increasing visibility through the installation of bird diverters, and nearly 4,000 at-risk distribution poles were identified to prevent electrocution risk. The presented results were obtained within the projects "LIFE13 NAT/SK/001272 Energy in the land - power lines and conservation of priority bird species in Natura 2000 sites" and "LIFE19 NAT/SK/001023 LIFE Danube Free Sky - Transnational conservation of birds along Danube river", co-funded by the European Union under the LIFE programme and the Ministry of the Environment of the Slovak Republic.

The use of power line pylons for the placement of nest boxes can help in increasing the population of some endangered bird species. Such a species is the Saker Falcon, which has lost its breeding habitat mainly as a result of intensive forestry activities. While around the 80s all known pairs in Slovakia nested in the mountains or floodplains, since 1991 there has been a significant change in the preference for nesting habitat. Since this year, the Raptor Protection of Slovakia has been working in cooperation with the company Slovak electricity transmission system to progressively create new nesting opportunities in the form of nest boxes (at least 400 of them have been installed so far) fitted to pylons. Individual pairs began to gradually occupy sites in agrocenoses in the lowlands, since 2009 all pairs have been continuously nesting only on power line pylons of 400, 220, and 110 kV lines. After 2000, 20-45 pairs (2008-2012) and 35-52 pairs (2013-2018) were known. In 2022 and 2023, 45 and 40 pairs were identified, which produced 166 and 135 chicks, respectively. Many of the breeding pairs are under a high risk of possible electrocution, as they often use the poles of 22 kV lines for resting or tearing the prey. The present paper was prepared within the project "LIFE19 NAT/SK/001023 LIFE Danube Free Sky - Transnational conservation of birds along Danube river", co-funded by the European Union under the LIFE Programme and the Ministry of Environment of the Slovak Republic.

Pylons of transmission power lines (≥110 kV), where bird electrocution is uncommon, can provide relatively safe nesting support for different bird species (e.g. ciconiformes, raptors and corvids), a phenomenon that sometimes reaches relevant numbers, as reported for the white stork (Ciconia ciconia) in some countries. However, this behaviour was rarely surveyed at a large spatial scale and considering all possible nesting species.
In this study, framed in a Portuguese partnership between a research centre (BIOPOLIS-CIBIO) and the national Transmission Systems Operator (REN), we carried out the first general survey of birds nesting on REN pylons in Portugal.
We selected ~2000 REN pylons (including all with previous records of nests, via annual helicopter counts) and visited them during the springs of 2021-2023, to identify existing nests and signs of occupation by any bird species.
We detected 1056 pylons with nests, occupied by 14 species. Besides white-stork (4227 nests on 1030 pylons), we confirmed 3 species of sparrows, a starling, a myna, 3 species of corvids, 4 species of diurnal raptors and an owl.
This study shows the potential of these structures as alternative nesting supports for many bird species. The white stork had a key-role in the obtained results, as 9 small/medium-sized species used cavities inside its nests to breed, a remarkable but less reported ecological aspect. We also highlight the presence of species of conservation concern, such as the Bonelli’s eagle, which justify the proposal of measures to mitigate the potential risks of this behaviour, such as the collision with wires.